Funny Tashlich?

We did Tashlich after services today. Tashlich, of course, is the Medieval Jewish ritual of tearing off piece of bread and reciting a short passage from the prophet Michah. The bread symbolizes our sins that we hope to cast away in the coming days of repentance. In addition to the standard Tashlich liturgy, we shared [...]

Rabbi Bachman knocks it out of the park

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The man is a genius. Check out a transcript of Rabbi Andy Bachman’s erev Rosh Hashanah sermon here. Here’ an excerpt:
Surrendering total control is never easy–especially as members of a synagogue community founded on principles that value the intellect over the experiential; the rational over the [...]

Shofars on YouTube – Part III

This is just ridiculous/hilarious.
YouTube – Shofar Garage Opener.

Shofars on YouTube – Part II

This guy can actually play Hatikvah on the shofar! It’s incredible!
YouTube – Hatikvah on the Shofar.

Shofars on YouTube – Part I

This is perfect axample of why Chabad has so many markets cornered–they just do cooler things than the rest of us. If my kindergarted Sunday School class had made actual shofars, instead of rolling a paper plate into a cone and sprinkling glitter on it, I would’ve been so much more [...]

Rosh Hashanah Zmiros

Hat-tip to BZ’s blog Mah Rabu for this little delight. It’s Phish. The relevance begins at about 4:05. Shanah Tovah, blogosphites.
YouTube – Phish 1999-10-03TMWSIY Avenu Malkenu.

Amidah antics -OR- The way Reform Jews should think about prayer

The following is a follow-up of sorts to William Berkson’s excellent post about commandedness in the Reform movment.
A Shabat morning with Chavurat Lamdeinu, progressive non-denominational minyan extraordinaire, is always full of oddities, whether it’s just the assortment of people or the comments made throughout the service. This week was no different, except that this week’s [...]

More on the prayer for “Unexpected Intimacy”

I wrote a couple of days ago about a prayer for anonymous gay sex. Let’s back track a bit and I’ll agree to hold my judgment until I have a copy of this oddity of a sidur in my own hands. Read DovBear’s excellent post about it for reasons to withhold judgment on the forthcoming [...]

Prostration

As a big fan of movement during prayer, I was very interested to read this article at Jews By Choice about prostration in Jewish prayer. One of the comments on that post pointed us to this video of Jewish prayer that may look very foreign to us. It’s very cool.
YouTube – [...]

A ceremony for anonymous gay sex?

Okay. Hold on. So the other day, I had my Jewish theology course with Professor Alan Nadler. The man tries equally hard to offend just about every one of his students and we all love it. In an attempt to do so during this paritcular class, he mentioned an upcoming Reform sidur he’s read about [...]